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Monday, 29 July 2013

As Swaziland gets ready for the annual Umhlanga or Reed
Dance Festival media across the world are falling for King Mswati III’s
propaganda.

At the forefront are the travel media which report the
Reed Dance as a colourful spectacle with a tradition going back centuries.

A typical example of the gushing hyperbole was published
on the website Travel Video News on 24 July 2013. It reported, ‘[Y]oung women from all
over Swaziland and beyond her borders converge on the royal residence in
Ludzidzini for this momentous occasion’. They carry newly-cut reeds to protect
the Queen Mother’s residence.

‘Residents of this tiny mountainous Kingdom are intensely
proud of their deep culture and taking part in the Festival is a proud and
privileged moment for all the family.’

It went on, ‘The Umhlanga Festival is a visual spectacle
that bonds this small but perfectly formed nation. Its ever- increasing
popularity defies the apparent decline of traditional cultures elsewhere in
Africa. Witnessing this festival is a truly unique experience.’

The report was wrong in almost every detail, except for
the undeniable fact that the Reed Dance takes place (it will be held in August
or September: at the king’s pleasure.) The ceremony is not centuries old (it
started under the present king’s reign) and the festival is far from a
privileged moment for all the family.

The sinister nature of the Reed Dance was revealed last
year (2012) when about 500 children were ordered to sing a song vilifying
political parties. This was part of a clampdown on dissent in the kingdom,
where King Mswati rules as sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch.

This children were taught a song to sing at the dance
which had lyrics that when translated into English said political parties ‘set
people against each other’ and said that if political parties were allowed to
exist in the kingdom the king’s people ‘could start fighting each other’.

Political parties are banned in Swaziland, but ahead of this
year’s national election there is increasing pressure from pro-democrats for
this to change. Some traditional authorities also believe that support for the
present system that puts them in control is on the wane. In Swaziland pro-democracy
demonstrations have been attacked by police and state security forces.

Last year about 500 children were chosen from all 350
chiefdoms in Swaziland to attend rehearsals at Ludzidzini Royal Residence and
the Correctional Services Institution in Matsapha to learn the song. They were
then ordered to return to their homes and teach the words to other girls in
their chiefdoms.

Lobayeni Dlamini, who worked with the girls (usually
referred to as ‘maidens’) on the song told the Times of Swaziland, there were fewer people who stood up to defend
the present political system in Swaziland and therefore there was a strong need
to send a message.

This was not the only year in which children were
compelled to sing the king’s praises. In 2009, the South Africa Press Association reported, ‘During the
four-hour event, children sang songs which glorified Mswati and condemned his
enemies.

‘“This land is your land our king, your enemies want to destroy you,” they
sang.’

Observers inside Swaziland also doubt that the girls who
are expected to dance half-naked in front of the king do not choose to attend
of their own free will. The chiefs in the rural areas where they live require
them to attend and the girls’ families can be victimised if they do not go.

Musa Hlophe, a regular columnist for the Times of Swaziland, one of the few
newspapers in the kingdom not owned by King Mswati, commented after one Reed
Dance that many of the girls who attended went because it was their only chance
to get a decent meal.

Hlophe wrote, ‘Judging from the appearances of these
dancing girls, one may be fooled into thinking all is well in the kingdom of
Eswatini [Swaziland].

‘What will be hidden to the unsuspecting outsider is that
most of these girls will have had a balanced meal while at the Reed Dance. That
most of these girls (about 80 per cent of them) come from families who are
among the 500,000 people who survive on food aid [out of a population of about
1.3 million]. After all the glamour of this week’s events, these girls return
to grinding poverty by Tuesday or Wednesday or whenever their masters feel they
are now disposable, having fulfilled their responsibilities to our rulers and
their visitors.

‘What the unsuspecting visitors do not know is that
Swaziland is a country in serious crisis. It is said we are still number one in
the world, with the highest HIV prevalence rates, notwithstanding the slight
reduction, We are a country with diminishing opportunities for foreign direct
investments, with 70 per cent of the country’s population living on less than
one dollar a day.

‘Further compounded by one of the severest drought in
living memory, Swaziland would not be expected to be celebrating the way it
seems to be just now. The hundreds of trucks ferrying the thousands of girls to
Ludzidzini could have been used to deliver the much needed water and foodstuff
to the starving population.

‘But who counts in Swaziland are the people among the
ruling elite. In Swaziland, the poor have no rights or needs of their own. The
ruling elite will now and again run charities for the poor and elderly and the
poor take these as some form of generosity by their masters.’

In 2009, the Swazi Observer, a newspaper in effect owned by the king, reported that special
security squads had to be formed to ensure that the girls attended the Reed
Dance ceremony. It transpired that they took the trip from their villages, but
instead of dancing before the king they chose to spend their time in other
pursuits.

Nothando
Nhlengethwa, one of the people in charge of the maidens, told the newspaper,
security forces checked up on the maidens. Each chiefdom had been told to
supply a list of the names of those who leave the villages to attend. This list
was then checked on a daily basis to ensure that the girls did in fact arrive
at the reed dance and participated fully.

Several of the wives of King Mswati III who rules the impoverished
kingdom of Swaziland are presently on a vacation trip to Japan and Australia
that will cost an estimated US$10 million, a prodemocracy group has reported.

The group will be travelling variously on commercial aircraft and the
wives will travel on royal state aircraft.

In a statement SSN, quoting ‘sources within the royal family’, said, ‘The
sole purpose of this trip is vacation. It is rumoured that the trip will cost
R20 million (about US$10 million)in accommodation, travel allowances, air tickets,
visas and other necessities.’

The trip which is said to have begun on 20 July is shrouded in secrecy.
No official confirmation of the trip has been made by King Mswati, who rules
Swaziland as sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, or his hand-picked
government.

It is not clear how many of King Mswati’s are on the trip. He is widely
believed to have 13 wives in total, but this cannot be confirmed as the information
is considered to be a state secret.

A group of King Mswati’s wives take expensive vacations each year. Last
year (2012) they went on vacation to the gambling capital of the world,
Las Vegas in the United States. On that occasion three of the wives were
accompanied by an entourage of 55 people. Prodemocracy activists reported they stayed
in 10 villas at the cost of US$2,400 per villa per night.

In 2010, a group of the king’s wives went on what was
described at the time as ‘another multi-million dollar international shopping
spree’ to Brussels in Belgium and London, UK.

About 80 other people went on the trip to tend to the
needs of the queens.

In August 2009, five of King Mswati’s wives went on a
shopping trip through Europe and the Middle East that cost an estimated US$6
million.

At the time media in Swaziland were warned not to report
on the trip because it would harm the king’s reputation. Media houses were told
they would face sanctions, including possible closure, if word got out. But
newspapers and websites across
the world followed the story.

The Times
of London, for example, reported how the queens went on a shopping spree
while the subjects of King Mswati went hungry. Seven in ten of King Mswati’s
1.3 million subjects live in abject poverty, earning less than US$2 a day.

The Australian
newspaper said the king ignored the Swazi poor and the newspaper reminded
readers that Swaziland relied on international aid from the European Union and
the United States.

The previous year in August 2008 when a group of the
king’s wives went on a similar shopping spree ordinary Swazi women were so
outraged that they took
to the streets of Swaziland in protest.

King Mswati does not accompany his wives on these trips. However, he is
known to spend lavishly on himself and his wives when he does make trips. A
typical example was in April 2011 when he went to London to attend the wedding
of Prince William to Kate Middleton. The cost of the plane alone to take him to
the UK cost the Swazi people US$700,000.

The following year he was back in London to attend a lunch
to mark the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II. He took with him his first
wife Inkhosikati LaMbikiza. She wore to the lunch shoes trimmed with jewels that
cost £995 (US$1,559). It would take seven-out-of-ten Swazis at least three
years to earn the price of the shoes.

As a result of this spending the IMF withdrew its team that
was advising the government on economic recovery from Swaziland.

The King is regularly criticised in media across the globe
for his extravagant lifestyle, but media in Swaziland dare not criticise him. At
the time of the visit to the Diamond Jubilee the Times of Swaziland, the only independent daily newspaper in the
kingdom, featured a report about LaMbikiza’s shoes, gushing that she had
received ‘rave reviews’ from a UK newspaper for her dress sense.

It did not,
however, say that the same newspaper reported, ‘Guests from controversial
regimes include Swaziland’s King Mswati III, who has been accused of living an
obscenely lavish lifestyle while many of his people starve.’

While more than half of the Swazi population rely on some
form of food aid to keep them from hunger, King Mswati has 13 palaces in
Swaziland, one for each of his wives; fleets of BMW and Mercedes cars and at
least one Rolls Royce.

Last year, for his 44th birthday he received a private
jet worth US$17 million as a gift. He refused to reveal who bought it for him,
leading to speculation that it was paid for out of public funds.

Prince
Hlangusemphi, Swaziland’s Minister of Economic Planning and Development, was
wide of the mark when he told the World Food Programme (WFP) that eradicating
hunger in the kingdom was a ‘tangible goal’ that the government was committed
to achieving.

He was
responding to a report that said Swaziland lost US$92 million per year in the
economy because people were too hungry to work properly.

But, the real
evidence is that it is the Swaziland Government, hand-picked by absolute
monarch King Mswati III, which is the major cause of the hunger.

In 2012, three separate reports from the World Economic Forum, United Nations and the
Institute for Security Studies all concluded the Swazi government was largely
to blame for the economic recession and subsequent increasing number of Swazis
who had to skip meals.

The reports
placed the blame at the financial mismanagement of the Swazi government.

The reports
listed low growth levels, government wastefulness and corruption, and lack of
democracy and accountability as some of the main reasons for the economic
downturn that has led to an increasing number of starving Swazis.

The Swazi
Government was also accused earlier this year of deliberately withholding food
donated from overseas as aid from hungry people as a policy to induce them to
become disaffected with their members of parliament and blame them for the
situation. Newspapers in Swaziland and abroad reported the government wanted to
punish the kingdom’s MPs for passing a vote of no confidence against it.

Earlier this
year it was revealed that the Swaziland Government had sold maize donated as food aid by Japan for hungry children in the kingdom
on the open market and deposited the US$3 million takings in a special bank
account.

The latest
report called the Cost of Hunger in Africa was prepared by the government of Swaziland working together with WFP. It found
that around 270,000 adults in Swaziland, or more than 40 percent of its
workers, suffer from stunted growth due to malnutrition. As a result, they were
more likely to get sick, do poorly in school, be less productive at work and
have shorter lives.

Sunday, 28 July 2013

The number of people who have registered to vote in
Swaziland’s upcoming election has been ‘grossly distorted’, the kingdom’s
Communist Party has said.

In a statement, the Communist
party of Swaziland (CPS) said King Mswati III and his regime were pushing ahead
with the election which starts in August and continues in September ‘in the
face of widespread voter apathy and crippling corruption’.

Swaziland’s Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC)
announced 411,084 people had registered to vote out of the 600,000 people in the kingdom eligible to
vote.

Kenneth Kunene, general secretary of the CPS, said, ‘Our
cadres have been closely monitoring the situation. There is no evidence that
anything like that number of people have registered. Quite the opposite. We
have seen much apathy, resistance and passive opposition to Mswati's
elections.’

The CPS said it had been running ‘a clandestine campaign’
to urge a boycott of the elections. It had circulated 10,000 anti-election
leaflets in the kingdom, and is organizing ‘below-radar meetings and
door-to-door campaigning’ to inform about the anti-democratic nature of the
elections.

In Swaziland, which is ruled by King Mswati III as
sub-Saharan Africa’s last remaining absolute monarch, political parties are
banned from contesting the election. Most opposition groups in Swaziland are
banned as ‘terrorists’.

The election is for 55 members of the 65-seat House of
Assembly. The king appoints the other 10 members. No members of the 30-strong
Swazi Senate are elected by the people: 20 senators are appointed by the king
and the other 10 are selected by members of the House of Assembly.

The CPS said that what registration that had taken place was
largely enforced by local chiefs, who are key officials in the feudal
Tinkhundla system that is the administrative framework of Swaziland.

Kunene said that the election system is corrupt from
start to finish, and that the pre-election process had ‘been fraught with
scandal and fraud’.

The CPS said it had evidence that chiefs had threatened
to confiscate land and deny privileges to potential voters unless they turned
up to vote.

Kunene said, ‘The police have also been threatening
people to make them register. Very few people have been voluntarily going along
to register. Everyone knows that these elections are not about equality, rights
or representation.’

Kunene added, ‘The regime is planning to hold what it
calls “voter education”. This will be a chaotic mess, as the police are
planning to enforce participation, as they tried with the registration process.
All this is simply reinforcing the people's opposition to the elections. They
are realizing that the polls have nothing to do with improving their
conditions.’

The report stated, ‘[M]anufacturing contracted by 0.6 percent, making it
the only sector that has contracted for four consecutive years, with a
cumulative decline of almost 8 percent.

‘The services sector, which had grown by more than 5 percent in 2009 and
2010, has experienced a significant slowdown in economic activity. In 2012, the
services sector recorded a mere 0.4 percent growth.’

African Economic Outlook said the freezing of public sector salaries for
the past two years, ‘has limited the purchasing power of about 10 percent of
the labour force and further reduced consumer confidence and domestic demand’.

It said the slow implementation of the government’s ‘Economic Recovery
Strategy’ has ‘prolonged the negative impacts of the fiscal crisis’.

It went on, ‘Subsequently, public and private investments have remained
low, even by regional standards. Therefore addressing the structural weaknesses
characterising Swaziland’s slow growth remains critical – the business
environment and management of public resources need to be improved to build
confidence in the economy and encourage private investment. Further actions are
also required to address skills shortages.’

A separate report by consultancy
DNA Economics in Pretoria, found that fewer than 10 percent of 400 firms
questioned in South Africa would consider investing in Swaziland, but more said
they would consider trading with the kingdom.

The survey also interviewed 25 Swazi firms, which agreed that the
country’s political situation was detrimental to the stable foundations desired
by foreign investors, particularly when investors could do business in
economically robust Mozambique or other regional economies, all of which are
faring better than Swaziland.

‘Swaziland has fallen behind in sub-Saharan Africa in terms of growth.
The global crisis has affected every country but why is it that others have
managed to do better? This could be attributed to domestic issues,’ Matthew
Stern of DNA Economics told Business
Report newspaper in South Africa.

One banker told the newspaper, ‘We can’t openly discuss what is keeping
Swaziland down, because it is governance. People are terrified to talk for fear
of being labelled traitors and terrorists, which is what this government does
with its critics, no matter how well meaning.’

He added that until it could be open to honest discussion, the root
problems hindering its economy would fester.

‘Swaziland is different from other sub-Saharan African countries, and
until that changes investors will remain nervous about coming here. In fact,
they’ve stopped.’

Wednesday, 17 July 2013

NBC Channel 4 in New York monitored members of a Swazi
delegation who were in New York for a UN General Assembly meeting last year.
The channel’s I-Team reported they were found to be ‘spending extravagantly in
New York City while their homelands struggle’.

Alastair Smith, a politics professor from New York
University, told the TV show, ‘The lavish spending is just endemic of autocratic
politics as a whole.’

Prof Smith said the UN’s Manhattan address was a
distraction from the intended work of the General Assembly. ‘They are here for
the shopping, the food the wine, the dining. If it was in a less attractive
place, I’m sure fewer people would want to come as hangers-on.’

The I-Team cameras found several visitors, including
family members, with the UN delegation from Swaziland walking out of high-end
retailer Bergdorf Goodman. One women had Bergdorf Goodman shopping bags, though
they said the items inside were just gifts.

The TV show reported that according to UN data, nearly 70
percent of Swazi people survive on less than US$2 a day.

‘Despite those struggles back home, numerous members of
the Swaziland UN entourage [stayed] at the luxury Mandarin Oriental Hotel,’ the
I-Team reported.

Democrats in Swaziland are calling on SADC to press King Mswati
III to allow democracy in his kingdom.

The call comes in a new report – the latest in a long
line – on the lack of human rights in Swaziland.

AfriMAP, a group that monitors and promotes compliance by African states with the
requirements of good governance, democracy, human rights and the rule of law,
in a report recently published, said the kingdom is ‘an island of autocratic
rule’ in the SADC [Southern African Development Community] region.

King Mswati rules Swaziland as sub-Saharan Africa’s last
absolute monarch. Political parties are banned and campaigners for democracy
are labelled ‘terrorists’ by the king and his supporters.

Swaziland is set to hold parliamentary elections in
September 2013.

Ozias Tungwara, director of AfriMAP, said in a statement launching the report, ‘The current form
of governance in Swaziland is a complete anathema to the conventional wisdom
that prevails in almost all AU [African Union] member states, and certainly in
SADC; the issue of dictatorships, absolutism and total state control of the
citizenry is a forgotten and unacceptable notion; which is why Swaziland
government must realize that it cannot delay political reforms, since it will
only undermine its credibility, delay progress, economic and social development
of the very people it is supposed to uplift and protect.’

The AfriMAP report, which has the support of civil
society groups in the kingdom, concluded that Swaziland does not have minimum
polling and democratic standards, because the right of assembly and the
formation of political parties are forbidden. The report says that the
political system in the country is ‘chronically deficient, and without any
democratic culture or values of good governance’.

The AfriMAP report is the latest in a string of reports
critical of Swaziland’s human right record.

A report published earlier this year by the US State
Department revealed, ‘The three main human rights abuses [in 2012] were police
use of excessive force, including use of torture, beatings, and unlawful
killings; restrictions on freedoms of association, assembly, and speech; and
discrimination and abuse of women and children.

‘Other human rights problems included arbitrary arrests
and lengthy pretrial detention; arbitrary interference with privacy and home;
prohibitions on political activity and harassment of political activists;
trafficking in persons; societal discrimination against members of the lesbian,
gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community and persons with albinism;
harassment of labor leaders; child labor; mob violence; and restrictions on
worker rights.

‘In general perpetrators acted with impunity, and the
government took few or no steps to prosecute or punish officials who committed
abuses.’

In May 2013, in its annual report on Swaziland, Amnesty International reported, rights to freedom of expression, association and
peaceful assembly continued to be violated in the kingdom. There were also
‘arbitrary arrests and excessive force used to crush political protests,’ the
report stated, and ‘torture and other ill-treatment remained a persistent
concern’ in Swaziland.

Amnesty noted that in May 2012 the African Commission on Human
Rights adopted a resolution ‘expressing alarm’ at the Swazi Government’s
failure to implement previous decisions and recommendations of the Commission
relating to the rights of freedom of expression, association, and assembly.

These violations included the use by police of, ‘rubber
bullets, tear gas and batons to break up demonstrations and gatherings viewed
as illegal’.

OSISA told the African Commission on Human
and Peoples' Rights (ACHPR) meeting in The Gambia, ‘There are also reliable
reports of a general militarization of the country through the deployment of
the Swazi army, police and correctional services to clamp down on any peaceful
protest action by labour or civil society organisations ahead of the country’s
undemocratic elections.’

In April 2013, the Swaziland United Democratic Front
(SUDF) and the Swaziland Democracy Campaign (SDC), two organiastions campaigning
for democracy in the kingdom, in a joint statement said police in Swaziland
were now a ‘private militia’ with the sole purpose of serving the Royal regime.
This was after about 80 armed officers broke
up a public meeting to discuss the lack of democracy in the kingdom.

Sunday, 7 July 2013

The Sikhuphe Airport, dubbed King Mswati’s vanity
project, will definitely be ready to open before the end of 2013, according to Solomon Dube, Director of the Swaziland Civil Aviation Authority (SWACAA).

But, he made it clear that it was up to King Mswati III
to decide the opening date.

Dube’s assertion was accepted at face value by media in
Swaziland, but observers of the continuing Sikhuphe debacle will be sceptical. A
number of ‘opening dates’ have been announced and quietly forgotten in the past.
King Mswati had himself confidently announced planes would be flying into
Sikhuphe in time for the FIFA World Cup, held in neighbouring South Africa.
That was in June 2010: but the tournament came and went, but Sikhuphe remained
unfinished.

Bertram Stewart, Principal Secretary in the Ministry of
Economic Planning and Development told us it would be ready to open before the start
of 2013. It wasn’t and it didn’t.

Stewart has for years been making claims about the
opening date of the airport. In October 2010, Stewart
said the airport would be open by the end of that year. It wasn’t.

Stewart was at
it again in February 2011, when he confidently told media the airport would
be completed by June 2011. It wasn’t. He also said a number of top world
airlines (that he declined to name) were negotiating to use Sikhuphe. Nothing
happened.

To date no international airline has announced it will
use Sikhuphe when it eventually does open. This will mean that even if the airport is
ready to receive planes it could be up to three years before any actually start
to land.

In June 2012, SWACAA Marketing and Corporate Affairs
Director Sabelo Dlamini told
Swazi media that at least three airlines from different countries had
‘shown interest’ in using Sikhuphe, but declined to name them. He remained optimistic about the prospects for Sikhuphe and said SWACAA was talking to
airlines in other countries as well.

But, he also revealed that it could take three years for
an airline to actually start using the airport once it had decided to do so.
‘Normally, airline operators need about three years to prepare for such an exercise
and we are nursing hopes that those we have approached will consider our
proposals,’ he said.

Swaziland’s
controversial Limkokwing University has awarded King Mswati III an honorary
doctorate.

In return, he
has granted Limkokwing land for the institution to build a permanent site in
his kingdom.

At a ceremony
last week Limkokwing announced the King would receive his Ph.D doctorate in ‘human
capital development’ in recognition of the king’s ‘commitment to improving the
lives of the Swazi people’.

Unfortunately,
nobody has pointed out that Limkokwing does not award doctorates to students in
the usual course of events because it is not really a university. Limkokwing,
which is based in Malaysia, has set up branches in Africa in Lesotho, Botswana
and Swaziland. They have all been attacked for the poor quality of their staff
and the inferior courses they offer.

In Swaziland, Limkokwing offers ‘associate degrees’, a
term invented to disguise the fact that they are courses inferior to a bachelor
degree. Associate degrees are better known in other educational institutions as
‘diplomas’.

In June 2012, after one year of operation Bandile
Mkhonta, Head of Human Resource for Limkokwing in Mbabane, told local media
that of 53 professional staff at the university; only one had a Ph.D doctorate.
A Ph.D is usually considered by universities
to be the minimum qualification required to be given the rank of senior
lecturer.

The Swazi Observerreported Mkhonta
saying Limkokwing had fewer Ph.Ds because it was a ‘non-conventional’
university whose curriculum was mainly based on practice than theory.

Limkokwing in
Swaziland has no staff at professor rank and no record of conducting scholarly
research.

Educational standards at Limkokwing are lower than those
at other universities, including the University of Swaziland. It does not
require students to have qualifications in the English language.

Despite these
shortcomings, King Mswati told an audience at Limkokwing the university was
providing the kind of degrees that empower Swazi youths and said he strongly
believed the future of Swaziland was effectively being transformed by it.

He did not give
details on exactly how this was being achieved.

Nor, did
Limkokwing explain what it meant when it spoke of the king’s ‘commitment to
improving the lives of the Swazi people’.

King Mswati, who
has a personal wealth estimated at US$200 million, is sub-Saharan Africa’s last
absolute monarch. He rules over a population of about 1.3 million people and 70
percent of his subjects live in abject poverty, earning less than US$1 per day.
The kingdom has the highest rate of HIV infection in the world.

King Mswati
allows no opposition to his rule and all political parties are banned. The
Swazi parliament is widely considered by democrats to be a sham that only
exists to follow King Mswati’s wishes.

The king has
total control over national land in his kingdom and it is expected that some of
this will be given to Limkokwing. No announcement of precisely where Limkokwing
will move to was made.

Limkokwing has
been controversial ever since it opened in Swaziland in May 2011. It struggled
for many years to be allowed to open until King Mswati personally gave his
blessing.

In June 2011, it emerged that the university’s founder
Tan Sri Dato Lim Kok Wing had
a meeting with King Mswati and ‘persuaded’ him that Swaziland needed a new
university – and Limkokwing should be it. He fooled the king into believing
that low level courses in such subjects as Graphic Designing, TV & Film
Production, Architectural Technology, Advertising, Creative Multimedia, Information
Technology, Event Management, Business Information Technology, Journalism and
Media, Public Relations and Business Management, would help Swaziland – a
mainly agricultural society - to prosper.

Once the king
gave his support nobody in his kingdom stood in its way. Limkokwing is
in Swaziland illegally because an Act of Parliament is needed to set up a
university, but Limkokwing was allowed to start without parliament’s approval.

The cash-strapped
government that was seeking ways to save money on higher education at the
kingdom’s established University of Swaziland offered Limkokwing US$2
million a year it did not have for scholarships for up to 800 students.

Soon after Limkokwing opened, students began protesting
that they were not getting their allowances and there were no text books and
too few laptops. There were at least 20 protests, class boycotts and
closures during the first year after it opened. Police used teargas and rubber bullets
against protesting students. One student was shot in the leg.

Saturday, 6 July 2013

Swazi youth leader Maxwell Dlamini was given bail yesterday after a
second lengthy detention and several delays in his bail hearing. Maxwell was
arrested in April by no less than 23 police officers, charged with sedition and
participating in an unlawful activity, writes Kenworthy News Media.

His “crime” was to organize and participate in a campaign that advocates
the boycott of Swaziland’s sham elections later in the year.

As is the case with other political prisoners, Maxwell has been ill
treated by both the police and by prison officers whilst in custody. According
to Maxwell, he has been beaten whilst in prison and in 2011, prior to his
ongoing trial where he is charged with offences under the Explosives Act, he
was tortured, as both Maxwell and Amnesty International’s 2012 Annual Report
have stated.

According to Mcolisi Ngcamphalala from the Swaziland Youth Congress,
where Maxwell is Secretary General, they are happy that Maxwell is out, as they
believe the state has no case against him, but angry at the continuous
imprisonment and harassing of those who peacefully advocate democracy in
Swaziland.

“News that the Secretary General of the Swaziland Youth Congress
(SWAYOCO) have been granted bail, is not only welcome but vindicating our long
held conviction that there is no case against Maxwell,” says Ngcamphalala. “We
condemn the state for having delayed the finalisation of the bail application
thus frustrated Maxwell, academically, personally and morally. We also
reiterate our call for the unconditional release of SWAYOCO president Bheki
Dlamini and all political prisoners, languishing inside and those outside on
bail, including comrade Maxwell.”

In the last 30 years, the People’s United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO)
has been “the main force in fighting for democracy,” Danish solidarity
organisation Africa Contact wrote in a press release in connection with
PUDEMO’s 30th Anniversary, writes Kenworthy News Media.

PUDEMO has been the main proponent of “a broadly socialist and pro-poor
political programme, and for ensuring the inclusion of the population at large
in the political process,” Danish democratic socialist party and PUDEMO project
partner the Red Green Alliance wrote in another press release.

Africa Contact and the Red Green Alliance are two of the main supporters of the democratic movement in Swaziland.
Africa Contact has worked with several of the important organisations in the
democratic movement for many years now and the Red Green Alliance is presently
engaged in a partnership project with PUDEMO.

The Red Green Alliance commends PUDEMO the organisations’ involvement in
“mass campaigning and civic education of the masses” in a country where there
is virtually no political space due to the ban on political parties and the
“brutal suppression” of the democratic movement in general, and PUDEMO in
particular.

And Africa Contact goes on to commend PUDEMO’s resolution and success in
pressurizing the regime, regardless of the difficulties that the organisation
faces. “PUDEMO’s success can be seen in the increasingly desperate measures of
the regime, not least in the increasing level of repression that PUDEMO and
other organisations fighting for multi-party democracy have to endure,” says
Africa Contact.

Thursday, 4 July 2013

Today (4 July 2013), Africa Contact launched an ACT NOW campaign to
unban Swazi trade union federation, TUCOSWA, together with the Congress of
South African Trade Unions and TUCOSWA, writes Kenoworthy News Media.

“With this campaign, we wish to send a clear message to Swaziland’s government
in general, and its Minister of Labour in particular, that the Swazi trade
unions have the support of people throughout the world, who will not stand idly
by and let the rights of workers in Swaziland be trampled underfoot,” says
Africa Contact’s Chairperson, Mads Barbesgaard.

“Together with the ILO we demand that TUCOSWA is unbanned. TUCOSWA’s
struggle is essential and epoch-making in ensuring that leaders in other
countries are not inspired by Swaziland to undermine their countries’ labour
rights.”

After years of negotiations, Swaziland’s trade unions federations had
decided to merge into one organisation, the Trade Union Congress of Swaziland
(TUCOSWA). But the Swazi government, after initially registering TUCOSWA, chose
to deregister the federation in violation of the rules of the International
Labour Organisation (ILO) that Swaziland has ratified.

During its International Labour Conference in June, the ILO demanded
that “the [Swazi] government should immediately proceed to the registration of
TUCOSWA.” Until Swaziland’s government chooses to do so – something that won’t
happen without pressure from within and outside Swaziland – the trade union
movement in Swaziland, and thus Swazi workers, are left without a voice.

And Swaziland’s population need the voice of a trade union congress to
demand their rights in a country where all that question the rule of absolute
monarch King Mswati III are met with threats, violence, torture and
imprisonment. In a country that is nominally a middle-income country but where
two thirds of the population survive on less than a dollar a day, many without
having a meal every day. And in a country where the government routinely and
often violently breaks up any demonstration, protest or union event.

After years of negotiations, Swaziland’s trade unions federations
decided to merge into one organisation, the Trade Union Congress of Swaziland
(TUCOSWA). The Swazi government chose not to recognise TUCOSWA, in violation of
the rules of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) that Swaziland has
ratified, writes Kenworthy News Media.

During its International Labour Conference in June, the ILO demanded
that “the [Swazi] government should immediately proceed to the registration of
TUCOSWA.” Until Swaziland’s government chooses to do so – something that won’t
happen without pressure from within and outside Swaziland – the trade union
movement in Swaziland, and thus Swazi workers, are left without a voice.

And Swaziland’s population need the voice of a trade union congress to
demand their rights in a country where all that question the rule of absolute
monarch King Mswati III are met with threats, violence, torture and
imprisonment. In a country that is nominally a middle-income country but where
two thirds of the population survive on less than a dollar a day, many without
having a meal every day. And in a country where the government routinely and
often violently breaks up any demonstration, protest or union event.

TUCOSWA has over 50.000 members through the two trade union federations
that formed it – the SFTU and SFL. Several other trade unions are affiliated to
TUCOSWA, including the teacher’s union SNAT, the public sector employees union
NAPSAWU, and the plantation workers union SAPWU.

TUCOSWA was initially registered in January 2012, although this
registration was withdrawn in April after TUCOSWA had called for a boycott of
the 2013 elections. TUCOSWA is therefore in effect an illegal organisation (and
treated as such by the Swazi police), and as the SFTU and SFL were disbanded
after the creation of TUCOSWA, Swaziland is effectively without a trade union
federation.

Examples of the police’s treatment of TUCOSWA was when police officers stopped
a sermon at the Catholic Centre in Manzini that was arranged by TUCOSWA in
March 2013, claiming that the meeting constituted an illegal gathering, or when
the police arrested a teacher for carrying a bag with a TUCOSWA-logo and a
worker for possessing a TUCOSWA-banner.

Swaziland’s Industrial Court also banned TUCOSWA from organising
activities during May Day, raiding TUCOSWA’s head office, and arresting
President Barnes Dlamini and Vice Secretary General Mduduzi Gina. Several other
TUCOSWA-members were kept under house arrest. According to Mduduzi Gina, “even
in other repressive regimes workers are allowed to celebrate may Day. Only in
Swaziland were the festivities stopped.”

According to the constitution of TUCOSWA, the organisation works to
“promote, encourage and assist in strengthening the democratic rights of
workers in the Kingdom of Swaziland,” and it also “affirms its commitment to
the establishment of a democratic society anchored on social justice.”

TUCOSWA has complained about its deregistering to the International
Labour Organisation (ILO) – a UN agency dealing with labour issues and
standards – and the International Trade Union Confederation over the repeated
violation of ILO Convention 87, that deals with freedom of association and the right
to organise and amongst other things recognises the right to unionisation and
to start trade union federations such as TUCOSWA. Swaziland has signed all of
the ILO’s core conventions, including Convention 87.

Trade Unions all over the world have condemned the Swazi government’s
treatement of TUCOSWA.

Education International (representing over 30 million
teachers in over 170 countries) wrote a letter to Swaziland’s Prime Minister
demanding that TUCOSWA is recognised. The British national trade union centre,
TUC (representing 6,5 million Britons), last year stated that Swaziland should
ensure the “full respect of trade union rights,” including the unbanning of
TUCOSWA. UNISON (representing 1 ½ million British civil servants) condemned the
deregistering of TUCOSWA, and the beatings and harassment of its members, in a
letter of support. And South African COSATU “is deeply appalled by the
continued onslaught and harassment against the leadership and members of the
Swaziland trade union federation, TUCOSWA.”

The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), which is the largest
trade union federation in the world, representing over 175 million members in
155 countries, brought Swaziland before the ILO congress in June. In a report
from June 2013, the ITUC also described organisational rights in Swaziland as
severely limited, not least the right to strike.

NGO’s have also condemned Swaziland’s attacks on TUCOSWA. The American
research and advocacy NGO, Freedom House, has urged “Swaziland to end these
attacks on the constitutional rights of its citizens and to allow civil society
groups to associate and assemble peacefully … [as this is] a clear
violation of its commitments under International Labor Organization (ILO)
treaties.” And Amnesty International describes how this de-registration has
been seen by the police as a reason to arrest, assault and threaten union
officials and activists who in any way display affinity to TUCOSWA in their
latest annual report.

And the Southern African Development Community, an organisation that
works to improve economic development in the Southern African region, can act
on Swaziland’s non-compliance to its treaties. According to the SADC-treaty,
that Swaziland signed in 1980, Swaziland has committed itself to respect human
rights, democratic principles, and the principles of the rule of law. Failure
to comply with the treaty may result in SADC imposing sanctions against
Swaziland.

Swaziland has also been reprimanded by the ILO again and again for
repeatedly violating ILO Convention 87. The ILO have sent two so called “high
level missions” to Swaziland, in 2006 and 2010 respectively, and have announced
that they will be sending another in the near future.

Tuesday, 2 July 2013

Police in Swaziland are spying on the kingdom’s members
of parliament.

One officer disguised in plain clothes was thrown out of
a workshop for MPs and one MP reported his phone has been bugged.

The revelations come as international organsations have begun
to criticise the way police and security services are used by the ruling elite
in Swaziland to undermine opposition to the regime headed by King Mswati III,
sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch.

On Monday (1 July 2013), Ntondozi MP Peter Ngwenya told the
House of Assembly that MPs lived in fear because there was constant police
presence, in particular from officers in the Intelligence Unit.

The Times of Swaziland newspaper reported that at the same sitting of the House Lobamba MP
Majahodvwa Khumalo said his cellphone had been bugged ever since he started
being ‘vocal against some people’.

The House was told that MPs were attending a workshop on
the Elections Expenses Bill when they discovered a plain-clothed police officer
taking notes of the MPs’ comments. He was ejected from the meeting.

The Times
reported that Ngwenya said as MPs they were now afraid to do anything because
there was too much police presence in their midst. ‘We know of the police who
ensure our safety and they are normally in uniform, we do not know what is
happening now,’ he said.

MISA reported that police interrogated one of the reporters
at one of the media houses after common and casual newsroom talk with
colleagues.

In April 2013, the US Embassy in Swaziland said it had
‘deep concern’ about the way police engage in ‘acts of intimidation and fear’
against people seeking their political rights. The statement came
after armed police, acting without a court order, barricaded a restaurant in
Manzini to stop people attending a public meeting to discuss the forthcoming
election in Swaziland.

OSISA told the African
Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights (ACHPR) meeting in The Gambia,
‘There are also reliable reports of a general militarization of the country
through the deployment of the Swazi army, police and correctional services to
clamp down on any peaceful protest action by labour or civil society
organisations ahead of the country’s undemocratic elections.’

In April 2013, the Swaziland United Democratic Front
(SUDF) and the Swaziland Democracy Campaign (SDC), two organiastions
campaigning for democracy in the kingdom, in a joint statement said police in
Swaziland were now a ‘private militia’ with the sole purpose of serving the
Royal regime. This was after about 80 armed officers broke
up a public meeting to discuss the lack of democracy in the kingdom.

Elections are to be held in Swaziland in September. The
regime, headed by King Mswati, has refused to allow any discussion about the
election or the political system in the kingdom to take place.

On 12 April, democrats wanted to mark the 40th
anniversary of King Sobhuza’s Royal Decree that in 1973 turned Swaziland from a
democracy to a kingdom ruled by an autocratic monarch, by holding a public
meeting to discuss the forthcoming national election in Swaziland. All
political parties are banned from taking part and the meeting was to discuss
why this was so.

Armed
police and riot troops, acting without a court order, physically blocked
the restaurant in Manzini where the meeting was to take place. The police said
the meeting was a threat to state security.

A week later, on 19 April, the 45th birthday
of King Mswati III, the banned youth group SWAYOCO tried to hold a rally at
Msunduza Township in Mbabane to discuss the election. Again, police forced
the meeting to close. Organisers of the meeting have been charged with
sedition.

Following these events, raids on the homes of democracy activists
in Swaziland took place. Wonder
Mkhonza, the National Organizing Secretary of the banned political party
the People’s United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO) was allegedly found in
possession of 5,000 pamphlets belonging to PUDEMO. He has been charged with
sedition.

Monday, 1 July 2013

The election process has started in Swaziland – but it has hardly reached fever pitch.

The Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC), the group charged with organising the poll, due to take place on two dates in August and September has struggles to get Swazi people to register. Despite taking the registration process to the people in their workplaces and villages, the EBC struggled to generate interest. In some areas local chiefs announced their subjects would be compelled to register.

King Mswati III extended the dates for registration for a week in an attempt to encourage more people to participate. By the time the registration process is over the EBC expects to have signed up about 70 percent of the people eligible in Swaziland to vote. This compares to 88 percent of eligible voters who registered for the last election in 2008.

A campaign to boycott the election by prodemocracy groups has been running and it is likely this has had some effect on the registration process.

Elsewhere this month, fresh doubts have been raised about the completion of Sikhuphe Airport, dubbed by many as King Mswati’s vanity project. One report said the runway was incapable of holding heavy aircraft and another said only 800 passengers per day on average were forecast to use the airport.

Swaziland: Striving For Freedom, now available free of charge on scribd dot com, is the sixth volume of information, commentary and analysis on human rights taken from articles first published on the Swazi Media Commentary blogsite in June 2013. Each month throughout this year a digest of articles will be published bringing together in one place material that is rarely found elsewhere.

Swazi Media Commentary has no physical base and is completely independent of any political faction and receives no income from any individual or organisation. People who contribute ideas or write for it do so as volunteers and receive no payment.